STARKVILLE — Without its fourth-year coach Tuesday night, the Mississippi State University baseball team used the team approach to get a victory.
With John Cohen serving an NCAA-mandated one-game suspension after being ejected following a loss to the University of Alabama on Sunday, No. 25 MSU beat Mississippi Valley State University 6-3 at Dudy Noble Field. The victory was the 23rd
straight in the series for MSU (30-18). The Bulldogs scored runs in the first and seventh innings to build the cushion they needed.
The game was the third time the Bulldogs have been without Cohen due to a mandated suspension.
“Jeff (Head) the home plate umpire came over to us after the game and asked, ‘So are you 1-0 now?’ and I told him, ‘Well, we’ve had to do it a couple times in four years here,’ ” MSU pitching coach Butch Thompson said.
Thompson and third-base coach Lane Burroughs shared the head coaching duties. Thompson made three pitching changes, while Burroughs made the hitting and defensive substitutions.
“That was 100 percent the plan for tonight because we’re all friends and I trust their judgment on those types of moves without coach Cohen being here tonight,” Thompson said.
Sophomore shortstop Adam Frazier led the way by going 4-for-5 with an RBI and run scored. The Bishop Ga., native raised his team-high batting average to .349 with the first four-hit performance of his college career.
“We didn’t have (coach Cohen) yelling at us because we expect him to do that in games like this, so yeah, that was odd,” Frazier said. “What I thought was good was everybody kept that energy level up on their own tonight.”
Taylor Stark, a sophomore who hadn’t been allowed to bat or to play in the field since severely injuring his hamstring in the first week of March, had a two-run triple to right-center field in the first to give MSU a 3-0 lead.
After a 34-minute rain delay, there were concerns about allowing Stark to start in left field and to play on a wet outfield, but the Flowood native made a pair of impressive catches to calm any fears about his lingering injury issues.
“I can’t speak for everybody, but I was (concerned),” Thompson said. “He made back to back catches and ran around really well tonight, so I was impressed.”
MVSU (14-36) scored its runs thanks to spotty defensive play and the inability of starting pitcher Will Cox to keep his fastball down. Cox hadn’t seen action in more than a month and the lack of work played a part in the freshman’s ineffectiveness.
In a game where Thompson wanted to look at some freshman pitchers, left-hander Ross Mitchell allowed one hit in 4 2/3 innings to earn his first college victory.
“I was just trying to get the game moving,” Mitchell said in between getting two shaving cream pies to the face after the game. “I really just threw straight fastballs and maybe threw just six offspeed pitches all night.”
Jacob Lindgren, a 12th-round selection by the Chicago Cubs in last year’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player draft, threw two perfect innings to earn his first college save.
Matthew Britton, a freshman who entered the game hitting .136, broke the 3-3 tie in the seventh with an RBI single to center field. Britton’s infield double play partner provided the final blow with a RBI-single to give MSU its 6-3 margin.
MSU will return to Southeastern Conference play at 6 p.m. Friday when it takes on the No. 6 University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., in a rematch of last year’s Gainesville Super Regional. The teams will meet at 6 p.m. Saturday and at noon Sunday.
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